This review documents the economic context within which American families l
ived in the 1990s. Despite nearly full employment and growing income and we
alth for many Americans, problem areas included persistent racial gaps in e
conomic well-being, growing inequality, and declining wages for young men.
Women showed stronger income growth than men in the decade, and 2-earner ho
useholds became increasingly associated with advantage. We review the conse
quences of these trends and of economic well-being generally on 4 dimension
s of family outcomes:family formation, divorce, marital quality, and child
well-being. Despite hypotheses suggesting that women's earnings might have
different effects on family outcomes than men's earnings, generally the rev
iew supports the expectation that both men's and women's economic advantage
is associated with more marriage, less divorce, more marital happiness, an
d greater child well-being. Important issues regarding measurement, recipro
cal relations between family structure and economic well-being.